How to use the EMR information system and its costs?

The EMR is very complex, so the question arises as to who should use the system? Well everyone and especially physicians with new practices should, because of the benefits that he/she will reap for many years to come. The EMR will create solutions for medical billing, transcription and other matters in one wide-ranging package. In using an EMR, practices will benefit enormously in saving time, money and office space. You can compare using an EMR to writing letters v/s using emails.

Your reports will be more sophisticated and management more effective.  Costs compare very favorably with the old paper-based system.  However, you must devise an effective strategy like you must decide as to how much of patient’s charts you will scan, most likely the most recent ones only. A benchmark figure like 20 charts per patient is good to start with since it will reduce expenditure and facilitate access of an essential data. Your staff can scan the data and index it, attaching records for the appropriate, perform quality assurance and upload the files into the EMR.

The entire procedure should cost no more than 10 cents per page, even if you use an outside vendor. With EMRS you get substantial operational practicality, and the automatic billing, tracking of claims for insurance purposes, scheduling, efficient management of documents and efficient updates, voice recognition consistency, fax functions, management of prescriptions, modules for templates and electronic encounter documentation. These systems can cost up to $50,000 or more, depending on the features and the number of users etc. Another free very effective EMR system is supported by advertisers. There is a minimum support fee of $1000/- for this software. This software is so popular and very widely used, and its users hold an annual conference to exchange tips and guidelines.

Electronic medical systems do have certain limitations, such as the mechanical expertise for storage and transmission to the methods data can be stored and accessed. Besides this older systems may not be compatible with newer systems and hence have problems accessing each other. The biggest problems for these systems is maintaining security, meaning denying access to unauthorized personnel. There is no system in the world that cannot be hacked, and patients can do nothing about their records. They have no participation or say in the way their medical records are handled. However, regarding patient’s health records, the patients can exercise more control because they are created by a patient for him/herself and they can determine who has access to their medical records.